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Ice Skating at the North Pole
Book by Naslund, Sena Jeter
- GenresFictionShort Stories
120 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
1 person is currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Sena Jeter Naslund
27 books437 followersSena Jeter Naslund is an American writer and educator, author of seven novels and two short-fiction collections. Her novels Ahab's Wife (1999) and Four Spirits (2003) were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She co-founded the low-residency MFA program at Spalding University and serves as Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville. Naslund was named Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 2005. Her work often explores women who are marginalized or misunderstood. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, in the former home of poet Madison Cawein.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 19, 2025
I Can't Believe this is several short stories rather than mostly one retold a few different ways.
How much do I know about Sena Jeter Naslund and her life before I read this? I won't describe it to you, because the simple fact is I didn't need to have known anything at all. I'll only describe the stories to the best of my ability.
I can't do this chronologically. Please do believe me, I Really Tried, but I can't. Instead, what I can describe is that you can read the story "The Woman Who Knocked Down Walls", maybe "Essence for Ms. Venus", and whichever other of your choosing and you will have basically read the whole book. The title story, along with all the others with the exception of those. The rest are technically different stories with different characters, but one may as well mistake them because they all start to blend together. Every main character is a woman terrified her current husband or lover will cheat on her because she's had at least one who has in the past, there's almost always a woman, sometimes several, sometimes her mother, who she looks up to to an incredible degree, usually professional but it seems to go above that on her end. There's honestly a lot captured in a line about a 'special bond only a girl and her first teacher' that can't be shared by any others and one of the protagonists wanting monogamy from men because she believes it's the closest thing she can have with them to the love between a mother and daughter. If all of these were as similar as they are and the message about something Freudian in particular were more addressed, or rather, if the idea of relationships between women being anything greater than friendships were even written about at all here, I don't mean displayed, I just mean Mentioned, just how male homosexuality is, I would honestly give it higher, but as it is I'm just left wondering if this served as much besides Sena Jeter Naslund telling her then-husband (who it's dedicated to) she plans on divorcing him when her mother dies because they have a daughter (Flora. A name shared by her mother and daughter, also who the book is dedicated to, also something true about a character almost this exact situation happens to) and her mother may be disappointed and we know how she feels about displeasing female authority figures and/or her mother from these, all Probably because she knows he's cheating on her but it could honestly be that she just finds this easy to write. The various main characters definitely do have something different about them, slightly different traits and backstories, and the ones in 'The Woman Who Knocked Down Walls' and 'Essence For Ms. Venus' genuinely feel like their own characters, but the others only feel very slightly different. As the reviews do say, classical music is there a lot but somehow this also fades away. Classical music is there just like how the idea of the frontier is basically everywhere, and honestly, the idea of the frontier might say a lot more with the actual story. You can tell the author has an interesting relationship with classical music just like how she does the idea of the woods on the Midwestern frontier, but the latter ends up somehow being even more explored than the former. The very last story is one of the few, though not the only, where the authors actual feelings towards what makes good classical music are revealed and that is that the feeling behind it is what matters. But really almost all of the stories, with the exception of Essence For Ms. Venus (somewhat) seem to contain some element of the same message that without genuine passion, nothing means anything, but this point isn't made in very different ways from story to story, in fact they're so similarly done and constructed they start blending together. and you get this tantalizing sense that this is a writer who can engage you in complicated plots and a perspective that's very entrenched in what she believes, but for whatever reason, limits herself severely. There are also signs, again, that the authors very insecure the audience will stay interested. This first manifests with Chopin himself appearing in the first story, and doesn't manifest in every single one, but there's still traces of it. This is also why somehow the reviews that seem to assure the reader it's amazing actually kind of saddened me in addition to amazing me because it's just like. This shouldn't be a long book to read and I'm sure at literally any point in history, anyone who could read it wouldn't say Most of that about it, like don't. lie to her.
How much do I know about Sena Jeter Naslund and her life before I read this? I won't describe it to you, because the simple fact is I didn't need to have known anything at all. I'll only describe the stories to the best of my ability.
I can't do this chronologically. Please do believe me, I Really Tried, but I can't. Instead, what I can describe is that you can read the story "The Woman Who Knocked Down Walls", maybe "Essence for Ms. Venus", and whichever other of your choosing and you will have basically read the whole book. The title story, along with all the others with the exception of those. The rest are technically different stories with different characters, but one may as well mistake them because they all start to blend together. Every main character is a woman terrified her current husband or lover will cheat on her because she's had at least one who has in the past, there's almost always a woman, sometimes several, sometimes her mother, who she looks up to to an incredible degree, usually professional but it seems to go above that on her end. There's honestly a lot captured in a line about a 'special bond only a girl and her first teacher' that can't be shared by any others and one of the protagonists wanting monogamy from men because she believes it's the closest thing she can have with them to the love between a mother and daughter. If all of these were as similar as they are and the message about something Freudian in particular were more addressed, or rather, if the idea of relationships between women being anything greater than friendships were even written about at all here, I don't mean displayed, I just mean Mentioned, just how male homosexuality is, I would honestly give it higher, but as it is I'm just left wondering if this served as much besides Sena Jeter Naslund telling her then-husband (who it's dedicated to) she plans on divorcing him when her mother dies because they have a daughter (Flora. A name shared by her mother and daughter, also who the book is dedicated to, also something true about a character almost this exact situation happens to) and her mother may be disappointed and we know how she feels about displeasing female authority figures and/or her mother from these, all Probably because she knows he's cheating on her but it could honestly be that she just finds this easy to write. The various main characters definitely do have something different about them, slightly different traits and backstories, and the ones in 'The Woman Who Knocked Down Walls' and 'Essence For Ms. Venus' genuinely feel like their own characters, but the others only feel very slightly different. As the reviews do say, classical music is there a lot but somehow this also fades away. Classical music is there just like how the idea of the frontier is basically everywhere, and honestly, the idea of the frontier might say a lot more with the actual story. You can tell the author has an interesting relationship with classical music just like how she does the idea of the woods on the Midwestern frontier, but the latter ends up somehow being even more explored than the former. The very last story is one of the few, though not the only, where the authors actual feelings towards what makes good classical music are revealed and that is that the feeling behind it is what matters. But really almost all of the stories, with the exception of Essence For Ms. Venus (somewhat) seem to contain some element of the same message that without genuine passion, nothing means anything, but this point isn't made in very different ways from story to story, in fact they're so similarly done and constructed they start blending together. and you get this tantalizing sense that this is a writer who can engage you in complicated plots and a perspective that's very entrenched in what she believes, but for whatever reason, limits herself severely. There are also signs, again, that the authors very insecure the audience will stay interested. This first manifests with Chopin himself appearing in the first story, and doesn't manifest in every single one, but there's still traces of it. This is also why somehow the reviews that seem to assure the reader it's amazing actually kind of saddened me in addition to amazing me because it's just like. This shouldn't be a long book to read and I'm sure at literally any point in history, anyone who could read it wouldn't say Most of that about it, like don't. lie to her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2023
I really love her writing style. I love the way she tells a story, making it so fully real and relatable. The stories were not fast paced, but they kept you going, and I enjoyed the emotions they evoked
June 24, 2012
I am a great fan of Sena Jeter Naslund, having read most all of her books. I loved The Four Spirits and Ahab's Wife. I think this must have been her first publication. It was published in 1989 and contains a number of short stories. You can see the author she will become in these stories, although a number of them are rather bizarre. Her recurring themes are infidelity, divorce, piano playing, and family. There is also a lot of longing for people in the past. These are not the best stories I have ever read, but I'm glad I did in order to see the emergent author.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews